This invention relates to a method of assisting a sales representative in selling and a program storage device readable by a processor of a computer and a computerized sales automation system for use in implementing same.
Sales professionals are continually faced with the task of managing large amounts of information concerning details on customers, organizations, and situations in which they are actively selling their products and services. As computers have become much more powerful and more economical for companies to purchase, sales departments have equipped their sales representatives with computers. The use of computers to assist in sales is usually referred to as sales automation. The term “sales automation” has been used to cover a wide range of computer sales applications, from computer-based multimedia presentations to “Rolodex” type storage of customer information. Prior sales automation systems, however have shortcomings in helping the sales representative. For example, many are incapable of processing information regarding actual events or individual assessments of the sales situation to suggest winning strategies to change activities and, interactions, so as to improve the chances of winning the sale.
Applying computer technology to the sales force presents two main challenges: the first is choosing the correct computer environment to run the application software, and the second is to choose application software that is the most effective in assisting the sales representative to win more sales. A sales force is usually mobile, so portable computers (laptops) are the most convenient. Laptop computers should be equipped with modems in order for salespeople to communicate with head office and other remote team members. The entire sales team including managers, representatives, and support staff, should be connected or networked. Client-server systems, where a main database resides on a central server and the clients access the information in the database via the network, are the most widely chosen platforms. Some systems now use the Internet as the network of choice for communication.
Recently, a new type of software, called groupware, has become available. Groupware is specifically designed to allow a distributed group of people to work together effectively as a team. It has its own e-mail and can also facilitate group discussions electronically. These electronic communication functions are commonly referred to as “messaging”. In addition to messaging, another necessary component of groupware is to be able to design applications using the messaging as an underpinning, or platform, for distributed teams of people separated by time and geography, to accomplish a common project or mission. The typical sales team, consisting of manager, in-house administration, and mobile or roving sales representatives, represent the ideal model for the technology tool of groupware.
One category of software called “contact management software” is designed to allow sales representative to store information about the customer. This information usually centers on details of the customer's organization, professional life, interactions with the sales representative, and is stored in an ‘ad hoc’ manner. Sales opportunities are the actual situations in which sales representatives are actively selling to customers. With this type of software it is difficult to logically store information about the sales opportunity and the associated sales cycle, and therefore it has limited functionality in assisting the sales representative in the selling process. Contact management software is also limited in its networking capability, making it difficult for a distributed team to share and collaborate effectively.
Another kind of software called “Sales Automation Software” covers a wider range of functionality and usually provides the capability to store information on sales opportunities. At a given point, a good representative may be working on dozens of sales situations, all at various stages of progress. Sales automation software allows these situations to be reported, characterized by percentage chances of success, and prioritized in a number of ways to aid a manager in forecasting, or to aid the sales representative in determining which situation to work on next.
A weakness with most sales automation programs is that they concentrate more on organizing lists of information, rather than defining the process that occurs within the opportunity. They are therefore unable to use the computer's power to proactively assist the sales representative through the period of time in which he or she is actively trying to sell to the customer.
Another major weakness of current sales automation programs is the inadequate way they calculate two important parameters essential to obtaining the full value of the software—probability and priority. Prioritizing a portfolio of fifty to one hundred sales opportunities at different stages of the sales cycle is a challenge for any sales representative. To do it effectively you need not only a computer, but a way to accurately assess the probability and priority that should be assigned to the sales opportunity.
Probability is typically a numerical value in the form of a percentage describing the chances that the sale will be won by the sales representative. One way to get this number is to simply ask the salesperson to enter his gut feel on winning the sale, in terms of a percentage between one and one hundred. This method is notoriously inconsistent between different sales representatives, even with the same representative forecasting different sales situations. As probability is used by the sales manager to forecast future business, the more inaccurate the forecasting method, the more potential harm to the company.
Another method to evaluate probability is to divide the sales cycle into a number of well defined stages, and to “award” the salesperson a certain percentage chance of winning the sale based on which stage they are at in the cycle. This method does not take into account the fact that no one knows half way through a six month sales cycle whether the sale will come to fruition—sometimes budgets get frozen, or needs change. The performance of the salesperson compared with the competition is also ignored in this method. There is no distinction between a good or a bad salesperson at the “demonstration” part of the sales cycle—they are each awarded a sixty percent chance of success, solely because they have reached this part of the sales cycle. This method has the potential to be more inaccurate than the simple process of asking for “gut feel” percentages.
Current methods of prioritizing sales opportunities are also inadequate. Usually the salesperson's current sales situations are listed in the sales automation program in order of probability, with the most probable at the top. This is especially dangerous if the method of determining probability is based on which sales step the salesperson has reached in the sales cycle. This method allocates the highest percentages to the late stages of the sales cycle—therefore the priority list sorted with the high probabilities at the top will drive the salesperson to work only on those situations at the point of closing or finishing. In fact, a salesperson must allocate his work evenly throughout the sales cycle—he cannot expect to win sales that he has neglected in the early stages of development. Current sales automation programs do not go far enough in assisting the sales representative in the sales cycle—the arena where sales skills are used competitively to fight for the sale.
Some sales automation programs do recognize that selling can be described as a process, involving a sequence of well defined steps, and request that the sales representative enter or check off when he moves from one step to another (they are reactive rather than proactive). These programs tend to involve simple rules, such as, “two weeks after sending a quotation, follow-up with a phone call”. Simple rules can help remind a sales representative, but in fact, the sales cycle is quite complicated and difficult to represent adequately through the same serial sequence of steps. For example, a typical sales cycle involves a large number of interactions between the sales representative and customer, such as giving quotations and demonstrations. During these interactions, the sales representative is applying his knowledge of the fundamental skills of selling. At the same time, as the sale progresses, the salesperson is developing knowledge from the information gained, and assessing his current performance in order to plan new strategies or change current ones. Also, because the selling process is highly dependent on human behavioral patterns, no two selling situations are identical.
Thus there is a need to provide an improved method and system of assisting the sales representative in their selling efforts, including a need for a sales automation system that can provide meaningful guidance and coaching to the sales representative during the sales process. There is also a need for a model that describes the sales process in a way that it can be stored in a computer system for providing feedback to the user. Further, there is a need for an improved method to grade sales opportunities according to the probability that the sale will be won by the sales representative. Ideally, such a method should use a minimum of data input and so as to provide consistency across a large sales team and amongst multiple sales opportunities belonging to the same salesperson. It is also desirable to provide a method of prioritizing a list of sales opportunities where a salesperson has the confidence to work from the top to the bottom of the list, knowing that he is optimally spreading his efforts to effectively cover the sales cycles from start to finish.